Podcast Summary:

New Books Network – Nicholas Gamso, "Art After Liberalism" (Columbia UP, 2022)

Host: Pierre Lancer
Guest: Nicholas Gamso
Date: November 29, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features Nicholas Gamso, author of Art After Liberalism, in conversation with host Pierre Lancer. The episode explores how contemporary art engages with, critiques, and possibly moves beyond the frameworks of liberalism at a time of political and social crisis. The discussion ranges from the definition and failures of liberalism to the roles, effectiveness, and limits of art as both critique and alternative. Key examples from Gamso's book—including works by Forensic Architecture, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Ren Hang—illustrate how artists and institutions navigate, reinforce, or resist the legacy and contradictions of liberalism in both Western and global contexts.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Nicholas Gamso’s Background and Approach

• Interdisciplinary Roots: Gamso's academic trajectory is rooted in American Studies, with an evolving focus towards critical theory, political dimensions, and cross-disciplinary methods.
• Art’s Political Stakes: His interest lies in how art and aesthetics shape, reflect, and critique political and social realities, especially in relation to geography and urban space ([03:40]-[07:34]).

Notable Moment:

"My training...was in a field called American Studies, which is a kind of interdisciplinary discourse...very concerned with the question of liberalism." — Nicholas Gamso ([03:40])

2. Defining Liberalism and the Crisis Context

• Beyond Electoral Politics: Liberalism here refers to a broad constellation of ideas about freedom—encompassing free markets, free speech, mobility—rather than mere party alignment ([18:52]-[22:39]).
• Inherent Contradictions: Liberalism's frameworks often obscure their complicity in forms of "enslavement, colonization, moral debt, and ecological devastation."
• Institutions as Liberal Arenas: Museums and universities serve as both preserver and enabler of liberal ideals, yet intimately linked to problematic financial and social practices.

Notable Quote:

"Liberalism is a kind of complex of ideas about freedom...but coming to terms with the idea of freedom requires coming to terms with its opposite." — Nicholas Gamso ([18:52])

3. Art as Critique and as Corrective

• Double Role: Art both diagnoses and sometimes attempts to remedy the limitations or failings of liberal institutions.
• Diagnostic Example: Forensic Architecture's intervention at the Whitney Biennial exposed the Whitney board's links to the arms trade, prompting both protest and tangible change ([24:08]-[29:59]).
• Counter-publics: These controversies and artworks can catalyze new alliances and forms of agency outside official institutions.

Notable Quote:

"This activity created a kind of counter public of people who were not associated with the institution...that kind of reconstructive work is one way of answering your question." — Nicholas Gamso ([25:59])

Timestamps:

• Forensic Architecture/Whitney controversy: [24:08]-[29:59]

4. From Representation to Relation: Shifting Artistic Focus

• Phenomenology over Symbolism: Gamso argues for a shift in art from representation (depicting issues) to relation—art that mobilizes bodies, transforms spaces, and enables new social formations ([29:59]-[35:22]).
• Influence of Hannah Arendt: Arendt’s ideas on collective action and power inform Gamso’s reading of art as an agent in the "phenomenology of relation," not just as a signifier.

Key Quote:

"Seizing power is not about taking over institutions. It's about picking up power where it lies in the streets." — Nicholas Gamso ([31:35])

5. Co-optation, Complicity and Aesthetics

• Limits of Critique: Even politically engaged works can be neutralized or absorbed by institutional and capitalist structures; the phenomenon seen in the trajectories of artists like Forensic Architecture and Wolfgang Tillmans.
• Role of Aesthetics: There’s an ongoing tension between aesthetic pleasure, political efficacy, and the risk of being co-opted. Gamso contends that art’s visceral, relational powers can bring about solidarity and engagement, even as these are quickly assimilated ([35:22]-[44:10]).

Key Moments:

"Seeking out unalienated pleasure is one of the most important things that art activists can do..." — Nicholas Gamso ([42:34])

6. Case Studies:

a) Wolfgang Tillmans and Liberal Aesthetics

• Tillmans as Neoliberal Artist: His work embodies liberal—arguably neoliberal—values, especially in his attempts to engage with issues like Brexit. Yet, Tillmans' political statements are often criticized as disconnected from those disenfranchised by liberalism ([44:55]-[56:42]).
• Art, Social Life, and Solidarity: Gamso underscores the role of art in building communities and solidarities, often beyond explicit political messaging.

Key Exchange:

Pierre Lancer: "How effective is the work that Tillmans is producing at convincing those left behind that liberalism is good for them?"
Nicholas Gamso: "I agree that his political statements are ineffectual...the only people who are paying attention...are either in his camp or...apolitical." ([56:42])

b) Expanding Beyond the West: Ren Hang & Art under Authoritarianism

• Chinese Context: Ren Hang's controversial work in China gains fresh (but potentially depoliticized) meaning when showcased in Western art markets ([67:54]-[71:04]).
• Limits of Art’s Impact: The difference between public dissent in repressive societies and Western art activism reveals both the possibilities and limitations of cultural critique and change.

Key Reflection:

"A work that is controversial in an environment like that can come into the space of the free West...all of its political potential is drained and it becomes pure gloss." — Nicholas Gamso ([68:48])

7. Liberalism, Neoliberalism, and Global Art

• Liberalism ≠ Neoliberalism: The conversation differentiates between the social/political project of liberalism and the economic, market-oriented logic of neoliberalism.
• Global Capital and Art: The spread and function of art must be considered within, and possibly as symptoms of, global capitalism’s flexibility to thrive irrespective of regime type ([71:04]-[77:47]).

8. Decolonial and Post-Liberal Turns in Contemporary Art

• Venice Biennale Example: A recent art world trend shows a pivot away from liberal universalism towards decolonial, anti-modernist, and non-Western representations—sometimes more for aesthetic consumption than genuine political engagement ([77:47]-[81:35]).

Memorable Quotes

• On institutional critique:
  "Museums' boards are being challenged...to highlight those [financial] connections is quite important." — Nicholas Gamso ([14:38])
• On art’s potential:
  "What matters most to me is questions of justice and people's lives...What's more interesting is sort of...does [art] also aid in the project [of change]?" ([37:39])
• On the dilemma of co-optation:
  "Certain artistic practices are so easily co opted...their critique is so easily co opted into hegemonies." — Pierre Lancer ([35:22])
• On aesthetics vs. politics:
  "I think seeking out unalienated pleasure is one of the most important things that art activists can do..." — Nicholas Gamso ([42:34])

Important Timestamps

• Introduction and premise: [01:57]-[03:26]
• Gamso’s academic and art focus: [03:40]-[07:34]
• Monument by Manaf Halbouni and public reaction: [07:34]-[13:19]
• Institutions, legitimacy, and critique: [13:19]-[17:55]
• (Re)defining liberalism: [18:52]-[22:39]
• Forensic Architecture and Whitney Museum case: [24:08]-[29:59]
• Phenomenology, relation, Arendt: [29:59]-[35:22]
• Complicity and co-optation risks: [35:22]-[44:10]
• Wolfgang Tillmans, Brexit & neoliberal art: [44:55]-[56:42]
• Ren Hang, China, and exported liberalism: [67:54]-[71:04]
• Global capitalism, art, and politics: [71:04]-[77:47]
• Venice Biennale and post-liberal representations: [77:47]-[81:35]

Conclusion

This episode provides a nuanced, intellectually rich conversation about the state of art, its entanglement with liberalism (and its failings), and the ways both artists and institutions are navigating a turbulent political present. Gamso challenges listeners to consider the limits of both art and liberal critique, the prospects for alternative forms of agency or solidarity, and the ever-present risks of co-optation within the art world.

Recommended for anyone interested in contemporary art, politics, and the philosophical debates that shape them.